Alma Richards, Olympian by Larry R. Gerlach (review)

Journal of Sport History 506 Volume 44, Number 3 women’s coach Dee Boeckmann similarly denied African AmericanTidye Pickett a chance to run by selecting Harriet Bland, her own club team member from St. Louis, after Bland lobbied hard for the position. The Americans won the gold medal when the favored German team dropped the baton on the final exchange with a sizable lead. While Gergen’s research and story are admirable, the book ends abruptly with a condensed version of Robinson’s life after the Nazi Olympics. Her first marriage warranted only four sentences, and the remaining six decades of her life were described in a brief chapter. While comprehensive in his earlier treatment, Gergen borrows extensively from the works of others (including a three-­ page quote) for his analysis, not always with proper citation. Better copyediting might also have caught some historical errors, such as the contention that Robinson was the only Chicagoan to qualify for the 1928 Olympic team (23) and that she anchored the women’s 4x400-­meter relay team (47) in 1928. Johnny Weissmuller, another Chicagoan, was the swimming star of that Olympiad, and there was no 4×400 relay event for women until 1972. —Gerald R. Gems North Central College Gerlach, Larry R. Alma Richards, Olympian. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2016. Pp. xi + 291. Illustrations, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95, hb. Alma Wilford Richards, a contemporary and friend of Jim Thorpe, won gold in the high jump at the 1912 Olympics. Richards (1890–1963) grew up in Parowan, Utah, the son of Latter Day Saint (Mormon) parents with European roots. He quit school at age fourteen to work on his family’s ranch, but a chance encounter with a University of Michigan professor in 1908 prompted him to resume his education.While attending the high school associated with Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, the 6'2" Richards competed in intercollegiate athletics. At a meet in Chicago, Richards drew the attention of Amos Alonzo Stagg and was chosen to represent the United States at the Fifth Olympiad in Stockholm. With an unorthodox form, Richards won gold with a jump of nearly 6'4". After the Olympics, Richards became a de facto “public relations ambassador for his state and church” (68), and, in 1913, he enrolled at Cornell University, where he worked with legendary coach Jack Moakley. In 1915, he placed first in the decathlon at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships in San Francisco, defeating Avery Brundage; neither athlete could participate in the 1916 Olympics, though, which were preempted by World War I. After graduation, Richards served in the army and competed in the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) championships but not the Inter-­ Allied Games. He moved to California in 1921, where he taught for many years in Los Angeles public schools. For over two decades, until his early forties, Richards competed in various track and field events. In Alma Richards, Olympian, Larry Gerlach has done a thorough job of researching this historically significant athlete, mining his papers at BYU in addition to other archival collections. Gerlach has carefully debunked a number of myths associated with the JSH 44_3.indd 506 8/30/17 9:31 AM Reviews: Books Fall 2017 507 Olympian, and this volume will no doubt be the definitive biography of Richards for years to come. Richards is most significant for his performance at Stockholm, yet other aspects of his story will interest sport historians. For instance, Gerlach illuminates Richards’s years at BYU and Cornell, providing a portrait of the life of an early-­ 1900s college athlete—and, notably, one who did not play football. Although Gerlach claims that Richards competed in an era “before ‘under the table’ payments” were common, the evidence seems to indicate that the “Big Cornellian” did receive some such subsidies in the 1910s (83–84). Richards’s identity as a Latter Day Saint (LDS) is an important part of his biography, and Gerlach does an excellent job of placing the athlete’s life in the context of Mormon history. Non-­LDS readers, though, may occasionally feel out of the loop. Gerlach asserts that Richards was among Utah’s greatest-­ ever athletes...